


It is on like Ping Pong

by happybibliosaurus



Series: Tumblr Prompt Fics [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkward Bucky Barnes, BAMF Clint Barton, Bucky Barnes Feels, College AU, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 11:59:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18894208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happybibliosaurus/pseuds/happybibliosaurus
Summary: Bucky plays table tennis every week as a routine.However his routine changes when he notices the hot archer who shoots in the hall before him.





	It is on like Ping Pong

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this for 'Bring your fandom to work'/mandatory fun day ages ago, and then exams hit and I never finished it until now. Better late then never, i guess.  
> I am on the archery team at my university, and they play tennis table in the hall before us, and that is pretty much the extent of how this fic relates to my life. I have no idea why I thought Bucky should play table tennis.  
> It is also un-beta'd so be gentle.

Every Tuesday evening Bucky headed to the sports centre across campus to play table tennis. The sport wasn’t something he particularly had a passion for previous to starting college, in fact he had never even tried it before, but someone had once told him that they bet a one-armed guy couldn’t win in a table tennis match. Of course, Bucky couldn't let that lie and had to prove them wrong. And boy had he proved them wrong. Yep, you are looking at the university’s two times table tennis champion.

Beat fucking that, Wilson. 

The point being that Tuesdays were always table tennis night. Always. They had been since the start of his first year and would remain that way until he graduated. But seemingly today there appeared to be 15 goddamn punks with bows and arrows currently standing in the hall where he played. 

Fucking bows and arrows. Like shitting medieval peasants! 

What the hell?!? 

He had the hall, so what the fuck were they all doing here! It wasn’t okay, and Bucky could feel the rage surging up inside him, blood boiling. He was moments away from storming in to scream at them and scare them all off with his best murder glare (the one Steve called his ‘Winter Soldier’ look) when he spotted the clock above.  


Crap, he had gotten his times wrong. There was still an hour to go before he had use of the hall, which meant he couldn’t go and scream at people with lethal weapons. 

It was probably for the best. He didn't want to die at the hands of a fucking stick and string.  


Bucky was about to turn away and sulked in the lobby with a shitty vending machine coffee and his own misery, when he noticed the most stunning guy right at the end of the archery line. The guy had sexy ‘just got out of bed’ dirty blonde hair, the most beautiful blue eyes, and Bucky could just make out what looked like a tanned six-pack peeking out of the rise in his too-tight purple t-shirt. However, the icing on the metaphorical cake was hot guy’s insane biceps.  


Holy mother of Sin, those arms!  


Damn.  


Oh man, the dude was hot. So, so very hot. Bucky wanted to carry him off and lick him all over, kind of hot. He could be a male model, or a firefighter or a god of thunder with a body like that.  


It was probably best for him to leave before someone noticed him drooling in the doorway.  


  
\---  


It kind of became a habit of Bucky’s to arrive 10 or so minutes early every week, just so he could stand shadowed in the doorway and watch the Hot Biceps Guy’s glorious body in action.  


Over the course of the next two months he studied every inch of the guy, absorbing in everything single part of his utter perfection.  


It wasn’t just his arms that had Bucky coming back to view him more. When he was annoyed by a shot, he adorably squished his nose up, and when he was happy his smile was even brighter than the sun. He joked around with everyone else in the club all the time and laughed at everything like there was nothing funnier in the world. He wore plasters over his face, which somehow failed to make him look any less beautiful, and he had a habit of rubbing his hearing aids which further messed up his borderline disastrous hair.  


He was amazing, and Bucky was every more falling for the guy. A guy who he would never actually have the courage to talk to.  


\----  


Romanoff played like the mother nation of Russia depended on it.  


Maybe it did. You never quite knew with Natasha.  


Bucky was 85% sure she was a spy, but he couldn’t quite work out why a spy would be here aggressively playing table tennis against him, and he really didn't want to ask.  


They always played in silence, only breaking it to comment on the score and to say goodbye. No civilities, or questions, or need to fill the silences with endless rambling. Natasha was probably his closest friend for this reason alone. When they were playing table tennis, they were playing table tennis, and that was it. However, for some godforsaken reason, this time Natasha decided to break this mutually agreed silence and possible their friendship forever.  


“Is there a particular reason for you to be arriving so early each week?” she asked, with a knowing smirk.  


Bucky ignored her, not rising to her comment, and the game continued.  


Sadly, so did Natasha.  


“You should talk to him.”  


Damn, how did she know? Maybe she was a spy. He had tried to be subtle about his ‘viewing time’, but apparently not enough for Natasha not to notice. Internally cursing, Bucky kept on ignoring her.  


They played in silence for another 10 minutes, just until they had been even for quite a few ends and the game was starting to get dull, at which Romanoff used what Bucky could only describe as cheating tactics and announced “Clint would be interested you know. You’re just his type.”  


Bucky’s game faulted, and the ball flew past him, bouncing across the floor and rolling away. Wait, Natasha knew him? She knew hot archery guy?! And she was waiting till just now to mention it to him?! What the heck?!  


He tried to splutter to a response, becoming increasingly redder in his face, at which Natasha sighed, put down her bat and walk off out the hall.  


“Just think about it Barnes,” she responded over her shoulder with an evil little smile on her face.  


Oh, Bucky wouldn’t be thinking about anything else now, for sure.  


\----  


Two Tuesdays later, Bucky arrived for his usual allotted ‘archery appreciation’ time only to find that Hot Archery Guy – wait, sorry – Clint wasn’t there. Far sadder than he should have been really, he turned to lurk in the lobby till he had the hall, when someone tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump, spin round, then almost collapse in shock.  


It was him. Motherfucking Clint the Hot Archery Biceps Guy was there, and he was smiling down at Bucky with his gorgeous smile and a smirk in his perfect eyes. Apparently, this meant Bucky had lost all ability to function as a normal human being, and instead was rotating between staring at him, and opening and closing his mouth like a stupid tuna fish, until his brain caught up and he finally managed to return to reality.  


“Umm... hi, you’re Nat’s friend. Barnes, right?” Clint asked with a soft smile, holding his hand out to be shaken, which Bucky grabbed onto like a lifeline. Clint’s hands were callused and rough, and Bucky wanted to be touched all over by those hands. Which was probably not a train of thought to follow right this second. Not with the guy right in front of him. Later, maybe.  


All that was missing the point though that Nat had mentioned him to Clint? She was both a traitor, and a goddess at the same time, and he wanted to both murder and hug her.  


“Yeah, but I normally go by Bucky. That’s what the rest of my friends call me,” he finally stuttered back, blushing deeply and letting go of Clint’s hand. He was being an utter disaster in front of the incredible guy who had been the starring feature in all his daydreams since he had first seen him, and he was ruining all chances of ever finding out just how tightly those arms could hold him down. Bucky was just about to start running away to hide in his room for the rest of the semester, so he didn’t have to relive this embarrassment ever again when Clint smile grew even wider and he reached out and placed his hand on Bucky’s shoulder.  


“Well, Bucky,” Clint responded, “I can see that Nat wasn’t lying when she said you were just my type. Instead of watching me shot from the side-lines, how about I give you a private viewing.”  


And then he god damn winked at Bucky.  


Bucky needed to buy Natasha a fucking present for whatever she had said to Clint, but that could happen after he took Clint up on that miracle of an offer.


End file.
